Listening with your Heart...........

Grandmother Willow:  "Listen with your heart child

---you will understand."

from the Disney movie Pocahontas


"Listen with your heart," said Grandmother Willow to Pocahontas.
What does that mean?
Can a heart speak?
What can it tell you?
Does it tell the truth to myself?
How will I understand?
Do I believe it?

I stood at the foot of the ancestral tree,
looked at her massive roots that were wrinkled and nicked...so deeply embedded in the
rich soil of the past,
She'd seen all kinds of things,
advised many other brothers and sisters,
some took her advice,
they listened with their heart,
they moved to their passion,
they lived,
fully,
creatively,
whole and full of shalom.

I want to hear what my heart has to say,
it's beat moves me forward with great urgent insistence,
They all say,
grandmother tree is a Wise Woman in her own right
and
perhaps,
experience does make one wise,
but I wondered...
wondered if her advice for others might hold true for me.

I sat on her root and she held me there in that spot,
"shh!!!" she says...."listen"
i felt my heart move,
there was a jump of excitement,
a tremble of anticipatory fear....
I wondered,
Do I really have the courage to listen?
Believe in what I hear?
Is that you speaking to me Grandmother or is it some other twisted sister of mine who plays old tapes and invites me to get into more trouble with my honest ways and rebel spirit.

Sometimes,
I find,
I ask the Grandmother to hold my gifts,
they scare me a bit,
I'm not afraid so much of them,
but
afraid of the reaction of others...
i hate that as I admit it aloud but she assured me...
she had heard that story before...."listen," she said.

i sat for a long while
under her shade of love,
rested under that canopy of peace,
I rubbed her withered roots and leaned into her strength
understanding at once that she too at one point was a tiny little acorn,
a fragment of who she is now,
and
I realized that growing
takes time,
accepting takes time
and
i was silent,
closed my eyes,
rested
and
heard her whisper in my ear....
"just listen, listen to your heart....it will lead you to where you need to go...it will lead you to joy."

I opened my hands,
pulled up the soundproof curtain I'd built around my heart,
shut my eyes,
and
i listened.....
and
my heart began to speak....
calling to me....
Grandmother Willow,
she is a wise woman you know,
perhaps...
perhaps...
this time,
I will believe my heart...
and
let my greatest Joy unfold.

find your grandmother tree
and
sit at her feet...
and
listen
listen with your heart
then you'll understand.

Hugs and blessings.....